Lorem Picsum vs Pexels

Lorem Picsum serves placeholder photos by encoding the size, and optionally a specific image ID or a seed, directly into the request URL — no signup or key required. Every photo comes from Unsplash's library, and query parameters can request a grayscale or blurred variant, a JPEG or WebP file extension, or a random cache-busting suffix for multiple images at one size. A companion /v2/list JSON endpoint returns the full photo catalog with author and dimension metadata for browsing before you hotlink.

Pexels' JSON API serves its library of free stock photos and videos for keyword search, curated collections, and per-item lookups, with photo results carrying several pre-generated JPEG sizes ready to use without further processing. A personal key sent via the Authorization header is the only credential required — no OAuth flow — and a live probe of the search endpoint showed a 25,000-request rate-limit window tracked per key rather than per IP. There is no paid tier: under the Pexels License, images and videos are free for personal and commercial use, with attribution appreciated but not required.